366 SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— G, H. 



Reports of Committees on : — 



(a) Earth Pressures. 



(6) Electrical Terms and Definitions. 



(c) Stresses in Overstrained Materials. 



SECTION H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 



(For reference to the publication elsewhere of communications entered in the 

 following list of transactions, see p. 428.) 



CAPE TOWN. 

 Tuesday, July 23. 



Prof. H. J. Fleure. — Racial Drifts in Africa and Europe. 



An attempt was made to promote exchange of views between workers in 

 Africa and Europe. The important discoveries of Mr. Leakey's expedition to Kenya 

 furnish many data supplementary to those of Professor Reek. The correlation of 

 the pluvial periods in East Africa ^l^th glacial and post-glacial phases of climate in 

 Europe is probably soundly based, but there is need to remember the important 

 pluvial period observed in Mesopotamia and probably correlated -with the Gschnitz 

 Stadium in Europe. It may well be that this rather than an earlier stage is to be 

 correlated with Mr. Leakey's third pluvial period, accompanied as he says by pottery 

 which is associated with an Aurignacian type of culture but degenerates. With such 

 a scheme of correlation Mr. Leakey's finds can be interpreted as indications of south- 

 ward drifts. He has found markedly hypsistenocephalic leptorhine skulls, -nath 

 cranial indices of about 70 or less and nasal indices under 50, and some have marked 

 supraciliaries. Aurignacian skulls and later upper Palaeolithic skulls in Europe are 

 in several cases hypsistenocephalic, the Combe Capelle skull being a notable example, 

 while several others from Predmost are important ; the Combe Capelle skuU, with 

 marked supraciliaries, has a nasal index of 53. 



The finding of large hypsistenocephalic skuUs with strong supraciliaries in ancient 

 graves in South Africa, as described by Dr. Broom, is interesting here. While several 

 have broad noses. Dr. Broom gives one with nasal index 53, and one with nasal 

 index 54'3. Mr. Leakey also has a case of an extremely large skull of index about 

 76 with the height considerably less than the breadth, a possible analogue on the 

 one hand of the Cro Magnon skull and on the other of the Boskop skull. Like the 

 Cro Magnon skuU, Mr. Leakey's specimen is leptorhine. 



Pigmy or Bushman types arp not as yet described for ancient Kenya, but their 

 distribution suggests that they are possibly a still older drift of mankind. They 

 have been said to have left traces in Europe, e.g. at Schweizersbild, and it has been 

 supposed that the hair as represented on the ' Willendorf Venus ' is spiral hair. This 

 is speculative. The idea of drifts of short ulotrichous types through Africa and S.E. 

 Asia, with possible reduction of size in unfavourable surroundings, ofiers at least a 

 useful hypothesis, and if we add the hypothesis that these drifts were early ones, we 

 are enabled to think of these types as influencing subsequent drifts, e.g. those of the 

 hypsistenocephalic types. 



It may be that close correlation of types of skull with types of culture in Africa, 

 e.g. the attempt to find a Hottentot physical type and so on, may be just as mis- 

 leading as the old habit, now largely given up, of trying to group all the Aurignacian 

 skulls in Europe under the name of the Cro Magnon race. 



Prof. M. R. Deennan. — Some Skulls recently discovered in South Africa. 



Mr. G. R.. Carline. — The Horizontal Narrow-band Loom in Africa. 



In parts of West and East Africa a horizontal treadle loom is used for weaving 

 narrow bands of silk or cotton. The essential features of a fully-developed loom are 

 present ; that is, it has a reed and two or more heddles worked by the feet, but its 



